As portable electronic devices have become more compact and the variety of functions performed by such devices has increased, it has become a challenge to design a user interface that allows users to easily interact with such electronic devices. It may be particularly challenging to design a simple user interface for portable electronic devices, such as, for example, smartphones, (e.g., iPhones®, Android®-based phones, Blackberries®, Symbian®-based phones, Palm®-based phones, etc.), which have much smaller screens than desktop or laptop computers.
Current portable electronic devices, such as smartphones, may include touch-sensitive displays (also known as “touch screens” or “touchscreens”), in addition to, or as an alternative to, physical push-buttons. The touch screen generally displays graphics and text, as well as provides a user interface (e.g., but not limited to graphical user interface (GUI)) through which a user may interact with the device (e.g. access applications stored thereon, place voice and/or video communication calls, etc). In addition to permitting users to make simple phone calls, current smartphones may permit users to communicate via video. The user interface generally allows the user to manage voice and video communications with others.
For example, the user interface may provide the user with a phone application display during an active phone call, wherein the user interface may provide a user with the ability to place callers on hold, add new callers, conference two callers together, swap between phone lines, as well as mute the user's end of the communication. For example, upon initiating communication with others, such as a conference call, the user may activate a mute function, thereby preventing transmission of audible sound from the user's end. The parties on the other end of the call will not hear the audio occurring on the user's end until the user deactivates the mute function.
Some current smartphones may include energy saving modes in which the touchscreen display may automatically shut off during periods of inactivity and the user interface may lock. As such, during a phone call, it may be a common occurrence that the display shuts off in order to conserve battery life, however the call remains active and the user may continue communicate with the other parties. This may be problematic in the event that the user activated the mute function. For example, because the display is off and the phone application display is no longer visible, the user may have no indication that the mute function is activated. In this instance, the user may attempt to participate in the conversation, but the other parties will not hear audio from the user's end due to the mute function being activated. This may be particularly frustrating and embarrassing for the user.
Upon realizing that the mute function remains active, the user must necessarily activate the display and access the user interface and the phone application display in order to deactivate the mute function by selecting the un-mute function. The touch screen displays and user interfaces of some smartphones may be unlocked by any of several well-known unlocking procedures, such as pressing a predefined set of buttons (simultaneously or sequentially), performing a predefined gesture and/or entering a code or password.
However, these unlock procedures may have drawbacks. For example, the button and/or gesture combinations may be frustrating to perform and creating, memorizing, and recalling passwords, codes, and the like can be quite burdensome. In addition to unlocking the phone, a user may be required to navigate the user interface in order to return to the phone application display so as to view the active call display, further delaying a user's ability to un-mute a call. These drawbacks may reduce the ease of use of the unlocking process and, as a consequence, may be time-consuming, particularly when a user needs to quickly un-mute the call. This may be particularly true when a user activates the mute function several times during the duration of a call.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.